In 2010, Medicare’s popular drug program paid for 1.1 billion prescriptions written by 1.7 million doctors, nurses and other health care providers. For the first time, the public can see who's prescribing what – and how they compare to others – with our tool, Prescriber Checkup.

Are you a health care provider listed in our Prescriber Checkup? We’d love to hear your reaction. Your insights will help inform our ongoing reporting on Medicare Part D. We promise we’ll keep the information you submit confidential.

Medicare’s failure to monitor what doctors are prescribing has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars on excessive use of brand-name medication and exposed the elderly and disabled to drugs they should avoid.

More on This Investigation

Medicare has increased oversight of its prescription drug program but many holes remain, allowing fraud and abuse to proliferate. Questionable practices were found at 1,400 pharmacies, which collectively billed Medicare $2.3 billion in 2014.

The move follows a ProPublica investigation showing that Medicare did little to find dangerous prescribing by doctors to seniors and the disabled. It is also part of the government’s new push to bring transparency to taxpayer-supported medical care.

Despite warnings about abuse, Medicare covered more prescriptions for potent controlled substances in 2012 than it did in 2011. The program's top prescribers often have faced disciplinary action or criminal charges related to their medical practices.